The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1887-12-08
The Soldiers Monument.
To the Editor ofthe Press:

4 U tto 4ZuttOf W Wt Tooos
The public-spirited citizens of Portland
read with delight paragraph in the Adver-
tiser of yesterday which suggested well
come change in the proposed method to keep
fresh in our hearts the memory of Portland's
sons who fought and died bravely for their
country. The suggestion seemed to touch
most happily the keynote of an arrange
ment which cannot fail to harmonic all the
jangling voices of discomfort emanating
from the never-satisfed public. respecting
the proper style and situation Of the sol
diers monument.
1t is proverbially true that no plan will
satisfy everybody, and that there are some
people who are bound, eonscietiousy often
times, not to be pleased with anything
which originates in another's brain.
Since any committee, however earnestly
they may have sought some happy means to
reconcile the numberless shades of variance
between two wide extremes in matters of
public opinion and taste, must always ex-
peet to be batfled by these unpleasant facts
on the very outset, we think they must well
come hints, from any source, in the hope
that some stray bright idea may throw new
AEut upOn QuCollOus We uO tuinh thC
correspondent Of the Advertiser has luckily
hit upon the best plan TO satisfy the demands
of all parties, and surely monument which
everybody expects to confront his gaze at
every turn in the great thoroughfare every
day for lifetime Is everybody's business.
This is not the first time memorial hall
has lbeen proposed; but although most of
the citizens and soldiers too who are in
terested in and competent to judge in the
matter have heartily approved it, they have
Immediately cast it out of their thought on
account of the stupendous draft which it
would lay upon the generosity of the people.
We all are prone to fall into rest Of
thought, submitting to somebody's lead. and
never emancipating ourselves from the bond
age until too late, when often the same hap
py thought seems to flash az once into every
ones mind m0rtifying us all over our former
blind stupidity. Somebody has said the Old
City Hall is irremediable blot and blemish,
and down it must come; until everybody be-
lieves it and nobody has ever locked to see If
it didsnoJ possess one redeeming quality If
it does come down, our children will cry out,
before we are passed out OF their hearing,
what shame Old City Hall in itself is a
worthy monument of the city's past life, and
in it, and around it, during the stirring
events of the war, the very soldiers whose
memory we wish to perpetuate have often
gathered; within its walls have unfulded
and matured many plans OF Portland's best
lovely to-day to behold with its dngy walls
and ri3kety doorways hung. with saws. tubs
and clam hoes, and its railings strung with
idlers and ragged urchins,. while to lobster
carts hitched to raw-boned horses and every
nondescript team are huddled together for
its foreground, Divestit Of all these access
sories and appendages, and no one can re-
gard it as such dsgraceful or hopelessly
ugly feature in the citygas to doom it forever
to oblivion.
of cost, it appears to be highly appropriate
in itself and In its location; and If preserved
for commemorative uses, as the years glide
on it will gather within its walls rich gar
ner Of treasures and historic antiquities.
Scattered far and wide:are Portland's sons
and daughters, who would delight to contrib.
ute relics and testimonials of their fathers
services, in gratitude for the happy days of
childhood passed in their dear old Forest
City, than which they will rarely find a love
er for for a Gda TO bese eey search for
that of financial prudence, and we cannot
imagine a dissenting voice to oppose this
plan.
Half the money which would erect mon
ument, that could only aspire to mediocrity
picturesque sanctorium for the most sacred
archives of the veteran army. A stranger
will glance at a monumental pile and pass on
with a vague impression of pedestal, shaft
and figures so like those in the public squares
throughout the Union; but let him enter q
hall. similar to many in the old world, hung
with torn flags and blood-stained banners,
and lined with guns and swords, and he
thrills with patriotic zeal as he reviews the
scenes of conflict in which our grandfathers
engaged.
their campfire in the hall to talk over the
exploits of their soldier life, the yery walls
themselves will resound with fuller and
richer tones Of experience and adventure !;
while the cold silent monument will never
tell but the one sad story Of the puried
heroes. The place itself is not fitted for
monument, and the more money that is ex-
pended upon marble and stone. the grander
and more unique the design.
The more it will be belittled where their is
neither blue sky or lofty trees for a back
ground or broad sweeping turf for a fore
ground. From too near q view i'm such
cramped surroundings its merits will be lost,
and from distance it will stick out
above the roofs of the houses like an unusual
chimney-pot Will not the citizens urge the
committee to think twice before they leapP
L.